Ethnobotanical study of Mandi Ahmad Abad, District Okara, Pakistan

This study hypothesized that native people have unique traditional knowledge of plant resources in the rural areas and basic objective was the documentation of this valuable inheritance. Ethnobotanical data was collected from a remote rural area of Mandi Ahmad Abad, Union council number NA-144 Tehsil Depalpur District Okara, Pakistan. A total of 94 informants were randomly interviewed to collect data about local names of plant species, mode of administration, recipes and ailments, and ethnobotanical uses through semi-structured questionnaire, interviews and group discussion methods. The collected data was statistically analyzed by calculating use value (UV), frequency of citation (FC), relative frequency of citation (RFC), factor of informant consensus (FIC), family importance value, and relative importance (RI). This study is also compared with ethnobotanical literature by using Jaccard’s index (JI) for similarity analysis. A total of 126 species belonging to 52 families were documented. The Poaceae (13spp.), Leguminosae (12spp.), Solanaceae (10spp.) and Cucurbitaceae (10spp.) were dominant families. Highest used value (UV = 0.22) was obtained for Azadirachta indica. The minimum used value (UV) was showed by Alhagi maurorum, Eclipta prostrata, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Solanum virginianum and Trianthema potulacastrum (UV = 0.01). Hepatitis, stomach ulcer, bowel disorders, urinary problems, psoriasis, cancer, and leucoderma were the most treated ailments with ICF value of 1, followed by leucorrhea (ICF: 0.89), and vomiting (ICF: 0.86). The highest Jaccard’s similarity index value (JI = 0.329) showed that plant species reported in our study was more similar with Arid regions of Northern Punjab, Pakistan. This novel ethnobotanical report concluded that traditional knowledge about use of medicinal plants is decreasing due to allopathic medicines. Immediate steps should be taken for conservation and documentation of traditional knowledge of plants especially those having medicinal properties.


Introduction
Ethnobotany is a branch of science that studies the use of plants by local peoples and how plants are used for food, timber, fuel, ornaments, and medicines. One of the purposes of ethnobotanical is to report, record, and conserve the indigenous knowledge of plants [1]. Modern ethnobotany is involving in knowledge of botany, taxonomy, biochemistry, geology, and medicine etc. [2]. Since antient times, people have been using plants local to their villages for medicinal and other purposes [3,4]. Traditionally, ethnobotanical knowledge has been passed down orally from generation to generation [5]. Conventional ethno-veterinary knowledge is generally still passed on orally. To prevent the extinction of this knowledge it is important to document it and preserve it for future generations [6].
Traditional knowledge about plants in China can be traced back to about five thousand years. According to a report from the World Health Organization, almost eighty percent of the current population in developing countries still depends on the usage of traditional plant knowledge [7,8]. The folk knowledge of indigenous plants plays an important role in the discoveries of many vital modern-day drugs. Almost 25% of drugs in modern medicines are obtained from plants [9]. The usage of plant based pharmaceuticals, such as opium, aspirin, digitalis, and quinine, have a long history in herbal remedies [8]. Some plants are used to cure one specific disease, whereas other plants are used in different circumstances. In the field of pharmacology, wild flora is very important and used in the production of new medicines as well as it provides immunity against many illnesses [9,10].
Plants are not only used for medicinal purpose but also reflect the economic status for some indigenous peoples. The use of medicinal plants is growing rapidly and is estimated to reach the value of 5 trillion dollars (US) by 2050 [11]. The world's population is expected to increase up to 10 billion by 2050 [12]. While the plant biodiversity is threatened by a variety of factors, including the increasing human population, climate change and anthropogenic factors are the major reasons of the loss of biodiversity [13]. According to the United Nation, more than one million species are at risk of extinction globally [14]. The woody flora is important to maintain the terrestrial ecosystem, conservation of water, prevent soil erosion, avoid floods and droughts, clean air, and water resources [15]. Local knowledge plays an important role in resource management, understanding and conserving antient practices, and play a vital role in saving the resources [14,16]. Quantitative studies are very helpful to plan strategies for the conservation of natural plant resources [17,18].
In Pakistan traditional medicine could have played an important role in providing health care to population [13,19]. Only 12% medicinal plants are used for treatment of different diseases. The medicinal herbs are utilized for the cure of both animal and human diseases. Due to industrialization, over population and extensive collection, particular medicinal plant are near to extinction [20]. Peoples that are living in or near the forests are more dependent on forests than others and have more knowledge about the utilization of plants for various purposes [21]. The local communities living in Pakistan mostly use herbal remedies for treatment of different diseases [5]. The common diseases such as fever, cold, cough and diarrhea could be treated by locally available herbal teas and herbal powders and they have no side effects. Even today various locally produced drugs are still being used as remedies for different ailments [22]. Almost 40000-50000 local hakims are utilizing 200 medicinal plants in local recipes for the treatment of many ailments [20] and ethnobotanical knowledge on 600 plant species has been documented [23].
The folk and local healthcare knowledge has been passed orally from one generation to another instead of in the form of written document due to this reason the traditional knowledge is decreasing gradually [24]. There is a need to save this important conventional knowledge [23]. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to collect ethnobotanical data about local plants from the peoples of Mandi Ahmad Abad which may help and find new leads to collect raw material for drug discovery. We also aimed to compare local ethnobotanical data between our area of study and other areas of Pakistan as well as neighboring countries via the technique of Jaccard's Similarity Index.

Study area
The city Mandi Ahmad Abad, District Okara Pakistan was selected for collection of ethnobotanical data. This city shares boundary with India therefore its geographical importance for defense is high.
It was previously called Mandi Hira Singh and renamed in 1993 by the Government of the Punjab in respect for the services of Mirza Ahmad Baig famous local politician. It is a union council, an administrative subdivision of Depalpur Tehsil. It is situated between 30.65˚N north latitude, 74.031˚E longitude. It has a subtropical climate with annual average precipitation 200 mm and 24.5˚C. The hottest months are May and June with maximum and minimum temperature 44˚C and 2˚C, respectively.

Ethnobotanical survey
The most of available literature of ethnobotanical data was studied. To collect maximum information about local uses of plants, many ethnobotanical surveys were carried out from October, 2019 to April, 2020 in the area of Mandi Ahmad Abad. The ethnobotanical data was collected by providing semi-structured questionnaires and oral interviews. Interviews were taken from both males and females in fields, streets, homes and shops. Review Committee for Biomedical Research, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan approved the conduction of this study. Oral consent was obtained from participants before starting study. The interview from female was a difficult task because they were not allowed to talk with unknown persons. Only 34 females with the help of local inhabitants on special request were interviewed. Total 94 informants ranging from 15-75 years including males, females, farmers, hakims, shepherds, herdsmen, school boys and others have sound local knowledge about different uses of plants. Out of 94 informants, 60 were males and 34 were females. Different age groups of informants were made e.g. 15-25, 25-35, 35-45, 45-55, 55-65, and 65-75. The questionnaire was prepared in such a way to collect maximum data about different plants, including (a) name of informants, gender, age, job and qualification (b) information about plants e.g. local name of plant, parts used, method of preparation of recipe, mode of administration and ethnobotanical uses. Information about local uses of plants like food, fodder, fuel, timber, medicine, furniture and other uses was also collected [25]. The location of plants was recorded by taking quadrants by using GPS essentials application. A total 94 informants were interviewed and information regarding to their gender, marital status, age group, literacy level and socioeconomics is given in the (Table 1).

Collection and identification
Plants used by indigenous people and herbalists were collected from the study area. Samples of grasses, herbs, shrubs and trees were taken, dried, mounted on herbarium sheets and properly identified by using Flora of Pakistan [26]. Ethnobotanical data from local people was collected by providing semi-structured questionnaire, group meetings and interviews.

Data analysis
The medicinal plants collected and identified from study area were organized in a table according to botanical names in alphabetical order, common names, family, parts used, rout of application and ethnobotanical uses. The accuracy and perfection of collected ethnobotanical data were checked and use value (UV), frequency of citation (FC), relative frequency citation index (RFCi), informant consensus factor (ICF) and Jaccard index (JI) by determined using different statistical tools.
Frequency citation (FC). The information provided by informants for a specific plant with respect to local medicinal value was considered as frequency citation.
Relative frequency citation index (RFCi). The value is calculated by dividing frequency of citation (FC) with total number of informants participating in a survey [27].
Use value (UV). The relative importance of plants collected from study area was calculated by given formula; Here, Ui = Number of use report for specific plant by each informant Ni = Number of total informants interviewed for specific plant. Informant consensus factor. The informant consensus factor (FIC) based on the reported remedies was calculated for the various remedies using the formula [28]; Here, Nur: is the number of used citation in each category Nt: is the number of species used for particular ailment Family importance value. The family Importance value (sum of all the use values of species in a family), and/or average family importance value (use values of all spp. in a family/ number of species in the same family) was also determined.
Where, BS is the normalized number of the body systems for which the species used and PH is the normalized number of the pharmacological properties or particular minor uses of the same species.
Jaccard index (JI). The JI was calculated by comparison of previously published studies from other areas by analyzing the percentage of quoted species and their medicinal uses by using the following formula [29]; "A" is the number of species of the area A, "B" is the number of species of the area B, "C" is the number of species common to both areas A and B.
In the present study, we calculated similarity index between our ethnobotanical survey and other studies which were carried out in different regions of Pakistan and neighboring countries.

Results and discussion
The results of the present work are summarized below:

Demographic information
The ethnobotanical data showed that the younger generation had less knowledge about the use of local plants compared to people aged 35 years and over, who had the most knowledge (Table 1). During the survey, most of the information was gathered from the male group (63.83%) compared to the female group (36.17%). The majority of knowledge was collected from the age group 55-65 years old (32.98%) and the minimum information was collected from the 20-25 year age group (5.32%). The ethnobotanical knowledge also varied according to the educational level of the community. The people who did matriculation (24.47%) had considerably more knowledge about indigenous plant usage than the graduate group (14.89%). The illiterate community of the study area had the least information about the plants (8.51%). The farmers of Mandi Ahmad Abad provided more ethnobotanical data for the plants (46.81%) followed by housewives (18.09%), shepherds (13.83%), shopkeepers (7.45%), local healers (6.38%), teachers (3.19%), homeopathic doctors (2.13%), and nurses (2.13%). Most of the population relied upon allopathic medicines and the modern health care system but the illiterate and less educated indigenous peoples predominantly used local medicinal plants to cure various ailments. As the modern health care system is growing and literacy levels are increasing, the indigenous knowledge is decreasing because the younger generation does not pay attention to this knowledge. The other studies reported that medicinal plant use is generally transmitted through the generations, but the older generation has been unable to impart traditional knowledge to the young, leading to a loss of information about biodiversity [30]. A study conducted in Bangladesh revealed the knowledge of medicinal plants was highest in the age group of 30-40 and lowest for the group aged 60 years and older [31].

Diversity of local plants
The results showed that the study area is rich in useful plants ( Table 2). It is an agricultural area and diversified with medicinal flora that is used by indigenous people to cure diseases and        is also used for many other purposes. A total of 126 local plants belonging to 52 families were reported where Poaceae (13 spp.) was the predominant family followed by Leguminosae (12 spp.) and Solanaceae, Cucurbitaceae (10 spp. each) (Fig 1).

Herbal therapies and preparation
More than 50 uses of plants were reported and many plant species were used against diseases including liver problems, skin disorders, heart problems, stomach disorders, respiratory tract infections and diabetes etc. A total of 25, 12 and 10 plant species were found effective against stomach disorders, joint pain and blood purification, respectively. Different parts of the local plants were used to prepare many local remedies. Among the different plant parts used, fruit were the favored part with (18.82%) usage in local remedies followed by leaves (18.28%) whole plant (16.13%), seeds (15.05%), stem (10.75%), aerial parts (6.99%), flowers (4.30%), roots (3.23%), latex (2.69%), bark (1.61%), bulb (1.08), tubers and rhizome (0.54%) (Fig 2). Different recipes were prepared from indigenous plant species i.e. infusion, decoction, powder, freshly cooked, cooked juice, poultice, porridge, water soaked seeds and infusion in oil etc. in the study area [32]. In these recipes, fresh herbs were used the most (22.5%) followed by powder (17.5%) and freshly cooked (11.3%) by local inhabitants. Flowers of Acacia nilotica were used for the treatment of leucorrhea, the bulb of Allium sativum is used to control blood pressure, Latex from Bombax ceiba is used to cure menstrual problems, seeds of Cassia fistula are used for stomach disorders, powder from Citrullus colocynthis is used for constipation and to cure asthma, the fruit of Cordia myxa is used to cure ulcers of the stomach and joint pain and fruit yielding plants provide a rich source of food but also provide numerous vitamins. Previous studies also reported the use of these plants against cure of different diseases [33][34][35][36].

Mode of administration
Most of the herbal medicines are used orally by indigenous people but a few of the medicines are applied in the form of a paste or a poultice applied directly to the body ( Table 2). The oral mode of ingestion is considered the best method for the treatment of different ailments but in skin disorders like skin allergies, wounds, pustules and pimples, herbal medicines are applied directly to the skin. Many plants of the same family or from different families were reported to be just as effective against a single disease [28].

Relative importance of medicines
To evaluate the relative importance of indigenous plants, the use value was calculated for each plant. The result of this study tells us that Azadirachta indica shows a maximum use value (UV = 0.22) with a minimum use value (UV) indicated by Alhagi maurorum, Eclipta prostrata, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Solanum virginianum and Trianthema potulacastrum (UV = 0.01). It is clear from the formula sheet that the plant with the higher UV value is used in many more recipes for different purposes and the plants with the lower UV value are used in a more limited amount for the treatment of ailments across many other recipes.

Informants consensus factor
The result of this study shows that hepatitis, ulcer of the stomach, bowel disorders, urinary problems, psoriasis, cancer, leucoderma, increased urination, antiseptic and burning feet were most prevalent in the study area with an ICF value (1.00). Followed by leucorrhea, which was second, with an ICF value (0.89) and vomiting was in third place, with an ICF value (0.86). Many other common diseases e.g., acidity of the stomach (ICF = 0.83), blood pressure (ICF = 0.82) and piles (ICF = 0.71) were observed with the calculation of the ICF value.

Jaccard's similarity index
Jaccard's similarity index shows the degree of similarity related species cited between our study and other studies carried out in different areas of the world. The highest Jaccard's similarity index value (JI = 0.329) shows that plant species reported in our study are more similar with [37] followed by [8] with Jaccard's index value (JI = 0.283), and followed by [25] with Jaccard's index value (JI = 0.245). The maximum Jaccard's index value for uses comparison is (JI = 0.28) for study of [37], followed by (JI = 0.24) for [38] and Jaccard's index value (JI = 0.24) for [25] was on third number. The highest Jaccard's similarity index value shows the highest similarity between two studies of different areas.

Conclusion
The current study reveals that the study area is diversified cereal, wild and many other medicinal plants. This is the first ethnobotanical survey of this study area. During this study very important information is collected with many medicinal plants. Reported medicinal plants are used to cure more than 50 ailments including heart diseases, respiratory tract infection, stomach disorders, hepatitis, joints pain and diabetes by indigenous people. Unfortunately